An Oil

The Theory

When you make lip balm you are essentially using these three basic ingredients (and you can mix it up as you wish, ie. using 3 types of butters with 2 types of oils etc.) but as a beginner, you just need these 3 things.

The ratio you use of each depends on what you want.

A hard lip balm has more wax content.

A softer lipbalm will have more butter content.

A liquid lipbalm will have more oil content.

For demonstrations sake, I have using equal weights of each ingredient (even though the oil is a liquid, I am still going to weigh it as I know the result works out quite well).

I used 30 grams of each base ingredient. The result is a solid balm that melts easily under warm touch.

Other items I am using:

1. A lipstick to tint the balm. I am using NYX Femme lipstick, quite a strong orange red, which I know will dillute in the lip balm mixture.

2. Essential oils (lip safe ones like peppermint, spearmint, lemon, lime) are fine to use, but I am using a flavour oil in Candy Floss.

3. Pure Vitamin E - as well as the fact that this is very nourishing for the lips, it is also a preservative and will prevent our lipbalm from going off. You don’t need to locate a bottle like mine if you don’t want to – just buy those Vitamin E capsules in Boots vitamins department, and break 2-3 of those into your recipe.

The Method

You need a bain marie, that is a bowl on top of a pan which has boiling water in it because you don’t want to heat the wax and butters on a direct heat:

Put your wax, butter and oils into the bain marie. The wax will take the longer to melt although some butters like Cocoa Butter are quite hard and therefore will take longer to melt.

Keep stirring and don’t let it burn. Some butters, especially Cocoa and Shea go grainy if overheated so you just want to get it to the point where it has melted, don’t cook it – its not cabbage…

It will probably only take about 3 minutes to melt the butter and wax. Once melted take it off the direct heat.

We want to tint this one so I have taken a pigmented lipstick, Femme by NYX – I am slicing some off with a clean knife:

A lip balm like this will dillute the colour so I am not worried about it being so bright:

I am going to drop this into the pan with the melted oils. Stir until melted in.

When that’s done, I add 2 drops of flavouring (Candy Floss this time):

Now I am adding 1/2 a teaspoon, or 3 vitamin E capsules to the mixture (break the capsules, don’t chuck the whole thing in – you just want the oil, duh). STIR!:

A lot of people use pipettes to put the product into jars (or whatever container you want) – I don’t have any plus its too time consuming for me so I pour the mixture into a measuring jug to distribute into my pots.

From this point, the mixture is cooling rapidly so don’t go and watch an episode of LA Ink or cook yourself a cup of tea* because it WILL solidify – which means you will need to scrape it out from the jug and reheat it, which will use more electricity, which means higher bills for you, which means financial worries, which results in divorce. I am not being responsible for your divorce.

*Bonus star for anyone who ‘gets’ this reference

Neatly poured! try not to touch the jars as they set:

Set lip balm, a much lighter pink. More lipstick could have been added for a darker colour or a lip safe powder pigment.

It actually smells lovely, not too overpowering and melts nicely on touch. I prefer softer balms overall, next time I would do it again but change the ratios:

30% Beeswax

20% Oil

50% Butter

FACK or FAQ

What if my lip balm solidifies?

Just scrape it together and remelt it on a bain marie. It happens to everyone sometimes, its not a big deal but do make sure you don’t burn the mixture.

How do I choose what to put into my lip balm?

There’s lots to choose from – wax, butter, oil combos, as well as additives, colour, scent, fragrance and so on. Decide what you need and look up what oil is the most suitable – for example, I have very dry lips so I like Shea Butter as its very moisturizing as is Jojoba Oil.

How long will my lipbalm last?

With a preservative added like Vitamin E it should be good for at least 6 months+. Obviously don’t leave it out in the sun, but its a pretty robust recipe.

If I am allergic to nuts, what kind of butters can I use?

Shea butter is a no-no if you are allergic to nuts, I also know quite a few people who are allergic to Cocoa Butter. Avocado and Mango butters are good choices.

Can I use tube containers?

If you prefer twist up containers, there are plenty of places where these are sold like eBay like here. Just pour the lip balm (not a soft one! Make sure you use equal quantities or more wax) into the hole and let it set.

You may use a pipette for a tube balm since the hole is smaller.

Hope you enjoyed it! To see where to buy ingredients please see my last tutorial on Lip Scrubs.

Let me know if you have any comments, questions, feedback on this tutorial!

Great recipe! I am trying to make this, but I was just wondering where I can buy the beeswax and the shea butter…I have been researching, but nothing has come up! If you could help me out that would be awesome! THANK YOU! : )